AMC has ordered an anthology series based on ‘The Terror,’ a 2007 bestselling novel by Dan Simmons. The 10-episode straight-to-drama series is going to be produced by Scott Free, Alexandra Milchan’s Emjag Productions, Entertainment 360 and AMC Studios David Kajganich (True Story) is writing the series.

The story is centered around a Royal Naval expedition crew which is attacked by mysterious predator, while searching for the Northwest Passage in 1847. The crews of the ships must fight for survival as the predator stalks them. The story is a fictionalized version of Captain Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. Kajganich is showrunning, along with Soo Hugh (The Whispers).

Kajganich said, “Dan’s novel is that rare combination of fascinating actual history, ground-breaking genre storytelling, and the complex character work of literature. As a long-time fan of Dan Simmons, the opportunity to join this project is a dream come true.”

Ridley Scott and David W. Zucker of Scott Free, Alexandra Milchan (The Wolf of Wall Street) and Scott Lambert (Paranoia), principals at Emjag Productions, and Guymon Casady (Game of Thrones) of Entertainment 360, the content arm of Management 360 are all serving as excutive producers of the series.

Joel Stillerman (president of original programming and development for AMC and SundanceTV) said, “We’ve been focused on developing this incredible story for television with these great partners for a couple of years, and we think it provides rich dTerror1ramatic material but also an opportunity to explore the anthology format, which is something we’re extremely interested in and offers some unique possibilities. Originality is still something that gets our attention every day, and the very unique mixing of historical non-fiction with a gripping and imaginative science fiction overlay in Dan’s novel is something that we hadn’t seen before. That, combined with an exceptional team behind the project, made this something we really wanted to bring to air on AMC.”

‘The Terror’ has been in development for 3 years at AMC and is expected to premiere in 2017.